The website Glassdoor, which gathers anonymous reviews of companies from current and former employees, unveiled new features on July 18 that allow workers to connect anonymously with their colleagues in real time.
Through a revamped app, workers can converse with coworkers and leaders at their company “with varying levels of anonymity,” according to a Glassdoor press release, with the option to identify as an employee at their company, or simply with their job title.
The features, which are not unlike those on the anonymous workplace discussion board Blind, may allow HR professionals to zero in on employee sentiment at their companies. But such anonymous forums have previously posed concerns to some HR leaders who’ve worried they foster negativity. Christian Sutherland-Wong, CEO of Glassdoor, pointed to moderation features built into the product as a means of keeping conversations productive.
Why Glassdoor is pivoting to “bowls.” Glassdoor’s focus on community features is tied to its 2021 acquisition of Fishbowl, a professional social networking platform, Sutherland-Wong told HR Brew.
This acquisition, coupled with the “sea change” that occurred in the workplace post-Covid, prompted Glassdoor to roll out these product updates, he said.
An example of Glassdoor's new community feed. Courtesy of Glassdoor.
On Glassdoor, users can now join discussion forums called “bowls” with other members of their company. Company members are verified with their work email addresses, the CEO said. There are also bowls geared toward specific industries and affinity groups, such as “Working Moms” or “Black in Tech.”
The features are intended to replicate water cooler chat that many employees may be missing in a remote or hybrid environment, Sutherland-Wong said. While company-sponsored initiatives like employee resource groups (ERGs) or internal email and Slack conversations generate certain types of conversations, the bowls are intended for “authentic real talk,” he added.
How HR can use anonymous discussion boards to their advantage. Anonymous discussion and review boards can pose a challenge to HR departments, given they may serve as a space for employees to air unfiltered grievances.
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In 2019, David Deresienski, a principal at HR Performance Consulting LLC, told SHRM it was problematic for employees to use their company email to sign up for a service that allows them to be critical of their employer. He suggested HR departments address the use of such services in a social media policy.
Sutherland-Wong said Glassdoor aims to be a “constructive space” for difficult discussions, and that the platform has developed community guidelines with this in mind, making clear the site isn’t a space for harassment, bullying, or trolling. Users can flag comments that don’t abide by the guidelines, and the community features include prompts that set the tone for constructive dialogue, he said.
The new community features may also be useful to HR professionals, Sutherland-Wong suggested. At Glassdoor, the company bowl has become an important tool for measuring employee sentiment, he said, guiding what leadership talks about in town halls and how they address issues within the company.
In the case of HR leaders, discussion forums like Glassdoor’s may provide an opportunity to clarify a certain policy or provide more information around some of the thinking that led to the policy, he said. People leaders at Glassdoor have also used the community features to “add levity,” with prompts asking about their favorite aspect of the interview process, for example.
Though the community features are more focused on the consumer experience for now, Sutherland-Wong said Glassdoor is working on insights tools so that HR pros can measure employee sentiment based on the conversations happening in these spaces in the future.